TRAVCLOKE#32
Team Captain
It's pretty disappointing when players make personal sledges like this 
THE personal insult a St Kilda player directed to Essendon's Andrew Lovett last Friday night clearly crossed the line of sportsmanship, according to triple premiership captain Michael Voss.
Voss said yesterday that it was a "cop-out" to blame match broadcaster Channel Seven for airing the sledge — "You bash your f------ missus, mate" — after it was picked up in an umpire's microphone during a dust-up involving several players just before three-quarter-time.
The insult, Voss said, should simply never have been uttered.
While Lovett indicated in a conversation with a senior Essendon official on Saturday that he did not want to lodge a complaint, the head of the AFL Players Association, Brendon Gale, said the comment was "at the outermost extremity" of gamesmanship.
Voss went further, saying he would be embarrassed if he was the St Kilda player.
"I think there's definitely a line, and in many ways, it's just called class.
"I, as much as anyone, was into the mental gamesmanship that you play but … it was more based around their performance. I don't ever recall actually bringing off-the-field stuff onto the field and I would be dead-set embarrassed if I did," the former Brisbane Lions captain said.
"There's a way to do that, to get under peoples' skin, and there's another way not to do it. There's an unwritten code, if you want to call it that. There's nothing in black and white that describes that currently, other than whether you want to play the game in true sportsmen fashion and in a classy way, or whether you want to go about it a different way.
"Anything along those lines, of such a personal nature like that, I find is breaching that barrier."
Lovett was fined $500 by the Melbourne Magistrates Court last year after he was found guilty of breaking an intervention order taken out by his former girlfriend.
The Essendon forward was ordered to stay away from her after she alleged he locked her in his car and hit her. Lovett pleaded guilty to breaking the intervention order after approaching her at a bar in September 2006.
The Age believes that in the aftermath of the St Kilda-Essendon game, Saints football manager Matthew Drain contacted his former club to discuss the sledge and ascertain whether the issue was going to be pursued. But after Lovett indicated a preference to put the matter behind him, Essendon followed suit.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou declined to comment on whether he thought it was appropriate that such insults were allowed to pass without punishment. It is believed the league has no intention of taking the matter any further.
St Kilda's Justin Koschitzke said that as long as insults were not of a racial or religious nature, it was virtually a free-for-all on the footy field. Gale concurred, but to a limit.
"Gamesmanship has always been part of our game and should always be part of the game," Gale said. "The game demands it. But I think there are things that happen that do go beyond gamesmanship … I think this was pushing the outer limits," the union chief executive said.
Voss said footballers should be aware that what they said on the ground could be detected at any time and that blame should not be apportioned to broadcasters.
"I think that's a cop-out. You're aware as a footballer that there's microphones. Whether they belong there or don't belong there, I think we could argue that for a long time and I do think that at times we invade that competitive space, which is a very hostile environment.
"But at the same time, I think you've still got to take ownership of your behaviour. If it becomes public, so be it because you've still done it and you've got to live up to it and take it on the chin and realise that in today's world, there are cameras around … you have a responsibility that your behaviour is adequate," he said.
Umpire Michael Vozzo took no action during or after Friday night's skirmish.
An AFL spokesman said it was up to a player to complain if he felt offended.
THE personal insult a St Kilda player directed to Essendon's Andrew Lovett last Friday night clearly crossed the line of sportsmanship, according to triple premiership captain Michael Voss.
Voss said yesterday that it was a "cop-out" to blame match broadcaster Channel Seven for airing the sledge — "You bash your f------ missus, mate" — after it was picked up in an umpire's microphone during a dust-up involving several players just before three-quarter-time.
The insult, Voss said, should simply never have been uttered.
While Lovett indicated in a conversation with a senior Essendon official on Saturday that he did not want to lodge a complaint, the head of the AFL Players Association, Brendon Gale, said the comment was "at the outermost extremity" of gamesmanship.
Voss went further, saying he would be embarrassed if he was the St Kilda player.
"I think there's definitely a line, and in many ways, it's just called class.
"I, as much as anyone, was into the mental gamesmanship that you play but … it was more based around their performance. I don't ever recall actually bringing off-the-field stuff onto the field and I would be dead-set embarrassed if I did," the former Brisbane Lions captain said.
"There's a way to do that, to get under peoples' skin, and there's another way not to do it. There's an unwritten code, if you want to call it that. There's nothing in black and white that describes that currently, other than whether you want to play the game in true sportsmen fashion and in a classy way, or whether you want to go about it a different way.
"Anything along those lines, of such a personal nature like that, I find is breaching that barrier."
Lovett was fined $500 by the Melbourne Magistrates Court last year after he was found guilty of breaking an intervention order taken out by his former girlfriend.
The Essendon forward was ordered to stay away from her after she alleged he locked her in his car and hit her. Lovett pleaded guilty to breaking the intervention order after approaching her at a bar in September 2006.
The Age believes that in the aftermath of the St Kilda-Essendon game, Saints football manager Matthew Drain contacted his former club to discuss the sledge and ascertain whether the issue was going to be pursued. But after Lovett indicated a preference to put the matter behind him, Essendon followed suit.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou declined to comment on whether he thought it was appropriate that such insults were allowed to pass without punishment. It is believed the league has no intention of taking the matter any further.
St Kilda's Justin Koschitzke said that as long as insults were not of a racial or religious nature, it was virtually a free-for-all on the footy field. Gale concurred, but to a limit.
"Gamesmanship has always been part of our game and should always be part of the game," Gale said. "The game demands it. But I think there are things that happen that do go beyond gamesmanship … I think this was pushing the outer limits," the union chief executive said.
Voss said footballers should be aware that what they said on the ground could be detected at any time and that blame should not be apportioned to broadcasters.
"I think that's a cop-out. You're aware as a footballer that there's microphones. Whether they belong there or don't belong there, I think we could argue that for a long time and I do think that at times we invade that competitive space, which is a very hostile environment.
"But at the same time, I think you've still got to take ownership of your behaviour. If it becomes public, so be it because you've still done it and you've got to live up to it and take it on the chin and realise that in today's world, there are cameras around … you have a responsibility that your behaviour is adequate," he said.
Umpire Michael Vozzo took no action during or after Friday night's skirmish.
An AFL spokesman said it was up to a player to complain if he felt offended.
